1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for searching. For example, embodiments of the present invention relate generally to methods and systems for using member networks to improve a user's search experience with a search engine.
2. Background
A conventional search engine, such as the Google™ search engine, returns a result set in response to a search query submitted by a user. The search engine performs the search based on a conventional search method. For example, one known method, described in an article entitled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine,” by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, assigns a degree of importance to a document, such as a web page, based on the link structure of the web page. The search engine ranks or sorts the individual articles or documents in the result set based on a variety of measures. For example, the search engine may rank the results based on a popularity score. The search engine generally places the most popular results at the beginning of the result set. Some conventional search engines also include electronic yellow pages to provide searches of individual product/service providers (e.g., restaurants, tax services, auto repair services, etc.) in a particular locality. Such local searches enable users to locate desired product/service providers that do not ordinarily appear in regular searches because they do not have their own websites or URLs.
Conventional websites (also written as “Web sites”) such as those hosted on Yahoo!™, Tribe™, Tickle™, or other web sites, allow users to form communities, groups, and/or other member networks. The member networks on conventional websites allow members of the group to communicate with each other and list announcements associated with the community. Generally, conventional web sites do not connect the member networks with search engines and enable members of such networks to endorse or recommend search results, particularly online advertisements and/or search results of local individual product/service providers, to one another.